I did not think Lauer did a good job, but I do not like these forums anyway. They are way too controlled and easily manipulated by a dishonest media. For these forums and town-halls, I would much rather fairly screen regular person questions (no ringers with undeclared partisan ties) and then let those same real persons have a follow up question with the candidate. Save the media "fact checking" for post forum spin. Usually there are two sides to it anyway.

I do not like the "modern" debate format either. I would rather the candidates be given a issue to address and then each candidate address the issue with each other. I do not care what the debate moderator's take is, I care what the candidates have to say. The moderators should only be calling out the time allotted.

But there is a warning here for Trump. You can be damn sure the media (also known as Hillary Clinton's Sturmabteilung) will be geared up for "gotchas" with Trump in the debates coming up (certainly the first debate).

The big issue for them is when did Donald Trump oppose the Iraq war?There are some legs to this. Trump was equivocal about war about six months before it started (although a passing remark on the Howard Stern show is not the same as voting for the war in the Senate like Hillary Clinton did). Trump did come out publicly opposing the Iraq war relatively early in the process.

I supported the Iraq War when it started. A lot of people did (including Hillary Clinton, John Kerry, Joe Biden). I do not accept the war was started on a lie. Everyone thought Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction and in fact he did have them (and some of them ended up in Syria).